Emma Barnett
British broadcaster and journalist
A fishmonger, then a surgeon.
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Question
What happens when we die?
Death & what remains
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Question
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Values & belief
Question
What does love feel like?
Relationships
Question
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Time & hindsight
Question
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Failure & regret
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
This is a standing question in The Guardian's decades-long The Q&A and also recurs independently in career and life interviews.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
A soldier and adventure guy.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 January 2026 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 195 →I was a huge daydreamer and imagined myself as a successful general leading his troops into battle.
Pauline McLynn
Irish character actress and author
A hairdresser – I still want to be a hairdresser.
Shirley MacLaine
American actress and author
At three, I knew I was too tall to be a ballerina, so that wasn’t going to happen.
More from Bear Grylls
View profile →We finally get to be with Jesus, face to face.
Small things make me anxious – like social things – but I have no big fears because I have faith in my heart.
Caring too much about what others think.
Light of the Almighty in my heart.
It’s all a gift. So be grateful for every day.
For my dad not to have known our boys.
More on identity & self
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Oti Mabuse, Viv Albertine, Ronnie Wood, Anna Friel, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Adwoa Aboah
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